Lanier eliminates many plainclothes drug units to focus on top dealers
By Clarence Williams and Peter Hermann June 12 at 10:07 PM
Citing disappearing open-air drug markets and new ways narcotics are being sold, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier says she wants her detectives to concentrate on suppliers and not street-corner busts that have long been a staple of policing across the country.
The strategy shift, outlined at a community meeting Thursday, will eliminate most of the plainclothes operations police have used for decades to target outdoor drug sales, magnets for drive-by shootings and other violence.
Coming at a tense moment in the nation’s relations between police and the public, it could also ease confrontations involving officers not immediately identifiable as law enforcement. It is an admission that some tactics — which were viewed by some critics as heavy-handed even when the crack epidemic sparked record numbers of homicides — no longer make sense amid a decline in fatal shootings and the availability of synthetic narcotics sold over the Internet, through social media and in convenience stores.
“Our main goal is the supply,” Lanier told about three dozen residents at the community forum in Northeast Washington. “We don’t want to focus police efforts on just people who are addicted. We want to be focusing on the people who are bringing the stuff in.” In an interview, she added: “Our criminal environment is changing rapidly. We have to keep up.”
The plan would eliminate District vice squads — each with about 20 detectives and supervisors — and shift higher-level investigations to the centralized Narcotics and Special Investigations Division. Police will continue undercover operations, but as much as possible, Lanier wants police to be identifiable when making arrests.
The changes are resulting in praise from experts pushing for innovation in policing, guarded optimism among activists who have complained about aggressive police tactics and skepticism from the head of the union representing the District’s rank-and-file officers.
Although D.C. police have escaped the controversies and tumult other cities have experienced after the deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement — such as in Baltimore, Cleveland, New York and Ferguson, Mo. — critics have complained that in the District, plainclothes officers jump from unmarked cars to roust suspected people, innocent and not, on street corners. Lanier has said specialized “jump out” squads have not been used in some time. She has previously said that in some cases, officers are responding to 911 calls or searching for particular suspects. Residents may also see officers from other agencies, she has said.
cont http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...3706fe-10ff-11e5-a0dc-2b6f404ff5cf_story.html
By Clarence Williams and Peter Hermann June 12 at 10:07 PM
Citing disappearing open-air drug markets and new ways narcotics are being sold, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier says she wants her detectives to concentrate on suppliers and not street-corner busts that have long been a staple of policing across the country.
The strategy shift, outlined at a community meeting Thursday, will eliminate most of the plainclothes operations police have used for decades to target outdoor drug sales, magnets for drive-by shootings and other violence.
Coming at a tense moment in the nation’s relations between police and the public, it could also ease confrontations involving officers not immediately identifiable as law enforcement. It is an admission that some tactics — which were viewed by some critics as heavy-handed even when the crack epidemic sparked record numbers of homicides — no longer make sense amid a decline in fatal shootings and the availability of synthetic narcotics sold over the Internet, through social media and in convenience stores.
“Our main goal is the supply,” Lanier told about three dozen residents at the community forum in Northeast Washington. “We don’t want to focus police efforts on just people who are addicted. We want to be focusing on the people who are bringing the stuff in.” In an interview, she added: “Our criminal environment is changing rapidly. We have to keep up.”
The plan would eliminate District vice squads — each with about 20 detectives and supervisors — and shift higher-level investigations to the centralized Narcotics and Special Investigations Division. Police will continue undercover operations, but as much as possible, Lanier wants police to be identifiable when making arrests.
The changes are resulting in praise from experts pushing for innovation in policing, guarded optimism among activists who have complained about aggressive police tactics and skepticism from the head of the union representing the District’s rank-and-file officers.
Although D.C. police have escaped the controversies and tumult other cities have experienced after the deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement — such as in Baltimore, Cleveland, New York and Ferguson, Mo. — critics have complained that in the District, plainclothes officers jump from unmarked cars to roust suspected people, innocent and not, on street corners. Lanier has said specialized “jump out” squads have not been used in some time. She has previously said that in some cases, officers are responding to 911 calls or searching for particular suspects. Residents may also see officers from other agencies, she has said.
cont http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...3706fe-10ff-11e5-a0dc-2b6f404ff5cf_story.html
